The Kalgorn Trilogy: Part Two
by Balto678
Summary: Part Two tells the events of Kalgorn's life leading up from the point where he lost his mother.


The Kalgorn Trilogy - Part Two

By: balto678

**PRELUDE**

**T**he nostrils of a human hunter flared as he sniffed the air. While his sense of smell was not as acute as a wolves, he lived in these forests and could pick up traces of animals almost just as skillfully as any wolf. This human was dark-skinned with long black hair that fell in a mess down to his shoulders. He wore nothing but a loincloth around his waist. While he had no verbal name, for his generation of people had no spoken language, he was recognized as the leader by the . This man, the leader of a small hunting party, had just caught the scent of their next meal. It was two wolves. Their scent was still very fresh. Not only was their scent in the air, but he could also see the traces of where these two wolves had slept the previous night. He was crouched at a half fallen over tree. Due to the height of the tree, when it finally gave way and began to fall, it got lodged between the branches of another nearby tree. So, the tree trunk stuck up at an angle, leaving it's branches to act as cover for the creatures slumbering under it. He peered inside to see if the wolves he could smell were still there. With no such luck, he was at least able to tell that they had been there by traces of animal fur and the two impressions in the ground from their bodies. Judging from the scent his weak sense of smell was able to pick up, he reasoned that they weren't too far off.

With a wave of his hand and a thrust of the spear he held in his hand, two groups of three humans split apart to give chase to their prey. They, too, had found traces of the wolves. The wolves, should they manage to kill them, would be skinned for clothes. They would also provide he and his people with food.

While the two groups rocketed through the trees expertly, hardly causing a single plant to stir or make any branches beneath their feet snap, the leader of thise group set out on his own. He ran on in different direction from the others. He was headed for the wolves, but it wasn't a direct path. He had something else in mind. This tactic he had decided on was the one that would prove to be the single thing that secured their meal that night.

The two wolves the humans had set their sights on were mother and son. The larger of the two, the female with a glossy white pelt, was the mother. Her name was Mist. The second wolf, the wolf with the brown and white coat was named Kalgorn. Though they were still ignorant of their impending doom that was only minutes away, Mist could sense there was something going on around them that neigher she or her son Kalgorn could. She didn't like it. But she was so thirsty that she ignored the opressive spirit above them and gulped down water from the river they had come across. She and her son had been growing dehydrated from the lack of water in their systems so, finding a river that flowed clean water was something of a blessing to them. However, just as the two wolves shared a smile, licking their muzzles dry, their moment was ruined by the sudden appearance of two humans. Both of them brandishing the sharp spears they held in their paws.

At first, the two wolves shrank back in fright, but their survival instincts began to kick in as soon as it dawned on them that these creatures ment to kill them. They both advanced on the humans, growling and snarling threatningly. Showing their sharp fangs and snapping at the spears as they were thrust at them. They were determined to break the tip off the sticks and eliminate the threat to them.

They managed to break the tips off the two spears, but they still weren't in the clear. They may have rendered their weapons useless, the still were unable to escape. They swerved between the two humans, avoiding one of their swings with the blunt stick and taking off. As soon as they got a distance away, they began to feel sharp, painful stings on their bodies as large stones fell from the sky and struck them. Kalgorn yelped in fright.

The stoning might have been unpleasant, but that wasn't what heeded their escape. It was the arrival of more humans. Suddenly the two humans they had just evaded were the least of their concerns. Six more humans abruptly materialized in front of them from the trees. All of them had another one of those spears. There was no fighting them. All Kalgorn and Mist could do was run. Run as fast as they could and evade the sharp spearheads they were being thrust their way over and over again.

With so many of these sharp spears coming at him, it was impossible for Kalgorn to dodge them all. He managed to do so for most of them, but a few of the humans got some lucky blows. The first of which was a rather painful jab to the shoulder which caused him to whimper as a small stream of blood ran down his leg from the wound. But, with the pain came the adrenaline. Adrenaline was followed by anger. These two combined, had a nice effect on most people. For Kalgorn, i made his fear of the creature to vanish from him. He siezed the stick the spear was attached to in his jaws and jerked it out of the humans hand.

The human, suddenly finding himself unarmed, became extemely aware of how deadly and sharp this wolf's claws looked. Kalgorn snarled and ran at him. As a result, the human took off and ran away. The retreating human gave Kalgorn and his mother a small chance to escape. Kalgorn wasted no time in sprinting toward their escape route. The humans had had them circled so it was impossible to run by them without being impaled on the end of those sharp sticks they carried. The hunter Kalgorn had just scared off caused a brief gap in the surrounding humans. Kalgorn made it through with no problem. However, when Mist sprinted after her son, amazed at what he'd just done, the gap suddenly closed.

It wasn't the nearby humans that blocked her off. It was something entirely different. The whole attack had taken place on the bank of a river. This river had several large trees growing out and over it. One of these trees jutted all the way out to the opposite shore. It was this tree that aided in Mists death.

Just as she reached the gap, another human dropped to the ground right infront of her. Then, before she could react, he drove the sprear in his hands right into her chest. Before the pain could register in her mind, her heart stopped. She was dead.

The human with the white hand print on his chest, the hunting party's leader, had swam across the river to the opposite shore and climbed along the trees that grew there. Briefly becomeing something like a Tarzan. When he reached the tree he was headed for, he came to a stop. The tree he had reached was one of the largest. Not in height, but it jutted out all the way across the river, for the river wasn't that wide, and still maintained a strong grasp in the ground. It was this tree limb that he slowly climbed out on. Once he reached the end of it, he sat quietly and waited. Directly beneath him, as he had predicted, the wolves were taking their drink from the water.

Over the course of the next few minutes, he witnessed his party install fear into these wolves hearts. But that fear led them to fight for their lives desperatly. He watched the brown wolf sieze the spear from one of the hunters, yank it free of his grasp, then charge him. It was then that he knew he had to act. He wasn't about to allow their meal to escape. The brown wolf may have escaped, but the larger while female wolf had yet to escape.

Acting fast, he jumped from the tree branch, landing on his feet right infront of the white wolf. The impact of his feet on the ground caused him to sink down to one knee. He got back to his feet quickly and, in one fluent motion as he came up, swung his spear back to get as much force behind it as possible, then brought it forth, burying it deep inside the female wolf's chest. The blade itself pierced through her heart. The spear buried itself so deep in her chest that all that remained of it was the long spear handle jutting out of her chest. The wolf's struggling never even began. At least he'd done her one favor. He gave her a quick death. She didn't even have time to feel the pain before her life was extinguished.

**1**

**K**algorn lay on the ground a broken wolf. Night had long since fallen and he had no idea where to go. He was so scared that, even as he lay there in the dead quiet, he continued to shudder from nerves and whimper every few seconds as he gazed around, looking, hoping to suddenly see his mother walking toward him. Maybe it was just paranoia, but he could swear he could hear something creeping up on him. Yet, everytime the 'thing' made a noise and he looked in it's direction, he saw nothing. His pupils had spread wide to take in the very dim light given off by the small sliver of a crescent moon. He wanted to get up and run from the noises. Every few seconds, another sound would reach his ears, but there seemed to be no cause for the noise because he saw no one or anything move.

He was consumed by the fear. Even the things he used to not fear at all scared him into submission just by making a noise. Such as a bird. He used to watch them fly overhead in fascination. Now, in the dead of night, with no one around him at all, he almost fainted when one flew just over his head. His fur stood on end as he jumped up with a yelp and backed away, whimpering and his tail hanging between his legs in submission. This was the first time he'd ever been without his mother and he didn't know how to cope with it. He was terrified of everything. He couldn't run either. He was afraid that if he did so, his mother would never find him. He wanted to stay put and howl as loud as he could so that his mother could find him again. But he was afraid that, if he made any noise, he would be attacked again.

So, terrified of doing anything at all, the only thing Kalgorn could do, was lament. He curled up into a tight ball and buried his muzzle beneath his tail. As he lay there, being as quiet as he possibly could be, he cried for his mother. He didn't know what it was, but he felt a physical pain inside his chest. He wasn't aware of it, but his heart was broken. His mother was gone. She was the only wolf in his life. Not only had he not learned enough skills to survive in the wild, but he was also still too young and weak to do so.

Kalgorn's tears never ceased that night. He lay there, crying for hours before fatigue finally took over and put him to sleep. Although he slept for several hours, he barely got any rest at all. He tossed and turned, thrashing and shaking all night.

_"Mom! Mom! MOM! Where are you!" Kalgorn ran around shouting these same words over and over again. He couldn't be sure if humans understood them or not, maybe they just heard barks and yelps. He tried finding her scent. Lowering his nose to the ground and pointing it to the air, desperatly seeking for the smell he knew would lead him to her. It was no use though, for hours he kept this up. Running frantically around like his life depended upon him finding her. In a way, it did. He had the knowledge and ability to survive on his own in the wild but he didn't have the courage to take on the world just yet. His fear of never finding her drove him on. He had tears in his eyes, his shouts for her had transformed into wails of anguish and dispair. Yet, even as hopeless as this looked, Kalgorn refused to stop. She was out there, somewhere. Somewhere where he just couldn't see her and where she couldn't hear him. He knew for sure that no matter what, if she heard him crying for her the way he was now, she would come to sooth him. She always had. _

_But why had she not come yet? He was bawling for her, raising his head to point his nose up at the sky and howling for her. How could she not hear him? His heart beat painfully inside his chest, pounding his ribs a thousand times a second, burning. It wasn't just because his frantic running or the fear that she was gone that drove him into this kind of sobfest. It was also because, now that she was gone, all he could think about was those last moments he'd been with her. One second, she was right behind him, doing her best to avoid getting impaled by the sharp sticks being jabbed at them and protecting him from the same fate, and the next she was gone. He'd believed he and her had escaped the humans for one brief moment, then he'd turned around and discovered the terrible truth about what had really happened. _

_He could only imagine the terror she felt. He'd experianced it too but, as a mother, it had to be twice as bad to watch your son abandon you to save his own hide. That's pretty much how Kalgorn felt right then. Like a coward. Now he was paying the price of what he'd done. He felt so alone, so. . . vulnerable. He doubted he'd be able to defend himself against an attack if he came across the wrong wolf. The only fighting experiance he'd ever gotten was how to wrestle down his prey. _

_It was starting to get dark and still he hadn't found her. He hadn't even found her scent! _Where_ was she?_

Overcome with grief, Kalgorn actually woke himself up with his own whines. He awoke rather viciously, snarling and clawing at the image of a human. He felt worse than ever. The previous night had been extremely scary, and although it was light now, he wasn't any happier or less scared. His mother still wasn't anywhere to be found. Although he didn't feel the pangs of hunger yet, his throat felt like a desert. Dry and hot.

Looking around, Kalgorn was overcome with an insatiable thristyness. His maw was completley dry, making his tongue feel like leather. He still knew where to go for water, but he wasn't going to risk going near that river again. For all he knew, the hunters would attack again. This time, chances were, he wouldn't get so lucky. But it was the only body of water he knew of. So, after being up for all of two minutes, Kalgorn was already faced with a choice that could result in life or death. He could either take the risk and drink for the river again or, he could try and wait for the next water form he found.

Since he had no idea what direction to go in and had no clue if he ever would find water again, Kalgorn was left with only one choice. He had to take his chances. The previous day, the river had been nothing for him to fear. Not only was there no reason for him to fear it, for it gave them life, but he was also with his mother. She was the only source of protection he had. Now that she was gone. . . no, lost . . . he felt incredibly vulnerable.

He padded slowly toward the sound of gently moving water, being sure to stay low. The sound of the river should have relaxed him, but when he thought about how this simple, innocent act had resulted in him and his mother being seperated, it was not very easy for him to do so. He did everything within his power to maintain stealth. Since there was no way of knowing how keen these hunter's sense of smell was, he had to assume the worst.

Kalgorn managed to get all the way up on the bank of the river so that all he had to do to get a drink was extend his muzzle forward. But, seeing how quickly those humans had surrounded him and his mother. . . he was afraid that doing so for even just a moment would result in his own death. He lay there for several minutes, debating over wheather he should take the chance or not. It seemed pointless, though, to have risked this much just to come out to the river only to back out. Under the influence of this logic, Kalgorn was left with only one choice; he took the risk.

Extending his muzzle forward, Kalgorn dipped his maw into the clear water silently and lapped away at the liquid. He tried to be quiet, but licking at the water to bring it up in small doses on his tongue was bound to cause some form of noise. He was inclined to make it short and then make a bee line to. . . anywhere but here. But his thirst suggested different. As he drank the water he felt like he was only getting more and more thirsty. However, once his belly began to feel heavy, that thirst began to die away.


End file.
